<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>INTERLUDE: The First Spider by Ghost0</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28393671">INTERLUDE: The First Spider</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost0/pseuds/Ghost0'>Ghost0</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Spider War [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:16:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,322</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28393671</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost0/pseuds/Ghost0</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>NOTE: Told from the first person perspective of the villain</p><p>You met him back in 2002 when he took on the Green Goblin. Then in 2004 when he went up against Doc Ock. And finally in 2007 when he took on The Sandman and Venom! But what happened after that? How did he end up a multiversal serial killer? Let him recount the events that molded him into what he has become.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Spider War [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2069466</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>INTERLUDE: The First Spider</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I had my future planned out. Well, not every detail but more like the general idea of what I wanted. The city was finally fully accepting me as Spider-Man, with the obvious exception of Jameson. And I was planning on finally proposing to MJ. Still had to work through college, but I had my eye on getting an actual staff position at the Daily Bugle after graduation. Did I want to work there for the rest of my life? Well, probably not. But at least I would have a steady income until I could find something else. All things considered, this was probably the best plan I could have come up for the kind of life I was living.</p><p>But everything took a turn for the worst. I found myself fighting off three bad guys at the same time, ruined my relationship with MJ, and became someone I didn’t want to be along the way. It all came to a head in a familiar scenario I have been in a couple of times before. Fighting the bad guy who held MJ captive. I still remember Eddie wearing the symbiote, standing over me and taunting me. With Flint Marko helping him out, it seemed like that could have been the last time I would ever do something like this. If it wasn’t for Harry, it could have very well been. I separated Eddie from the symbiote and used one of Harry’s bombs to take it out for good. Only for Eddie to lunge back into the creature so he could die with it. I still don’t know why he felt the need to do that. Did he do it because the symbiote’s influence was that strong over him? Or was there some sort of weird bond that had formed between them that never happened when I wore it?</p><p>In the end, I didn’t care. I reached back out to MJ after it all happened, following Harry’s funeral. All I wanted to do was to pick up where we left off. But I knew it wasn’t possible. For right then, the best thing we could be was friends. And I had to be OK with that. And for a while, I was. My focus went back to school, and after graduation my full attention was being a photographer. MJ found luck with a couple of smaller plays, something that would help her focus her fundamentals. At least that is what she told me. I always thought she was great. But I had to learn that my opinion wasn’t enough for her. So she kept working and practicing. And for a couple of years, that was the status quo. I was still Spider-Man, despite everything that had happened. MJ and I continued a friendship that was doing pretty well. She did have a couple of dates during that time, but I don’t recall any of them staying around for long. That gave me some hope that maybe we can go back to the way things were.</p><p>But then the summer of Hobgoblin began. Some new masked bad guy appeared in New York and everyone became focused on him. I spent the entire season trying to track him down. We got into conflicts and fought but I could never get the edge over him. Ended up taking a few scars that I had to think of cover ups for. It was hard to tell what his endgame was. First it was to rob a bunch of banks, then the next week he threatened to kill a bunch of hostages over some odd political stance. I could never get a good read on him. I wanted to talk to MJ about it, and she seemed willing to. But I had to remember that she needs me to support her just as much. But thanks to Hobgoblin, I was spending more time than usual in the suit. </p><p>Then August came around, bringing with it the worst possible scenario finally happened. An apartment building was attacked, an explosion occurred. Several people were injured, and one death. Aunt May…I knew it had to happen sometime. But not like that. It should have been in her sleep with me by her side. I didn’t even have a chance to start the preparations when he attacked me while I was swinging in the air. He wore blue body armor with an orange cloak and hood, a mask that reminded me of Norman Osborn’s. Maybe he was a former employee that had access to some of the same tech, which could have explained how he also had a glider. But I never did find out who was under the mask. We fought in the sky, I told him that he would pay for everything he has done. He escaped, but not before telling me he had one more thing to do.</p><p>I remember where I was when I saw it. In my apartment, putting in a new roll of film and I had the news on in the background. When I looked up, the camera slipped through my hands and broke on the ground. The reporter stood near a bunch of cars that seemed to be circling around something on the ground. I didn’t see what was actually on the ground, but they said the body of Mary Jane Watson had been found. There had to be a mistake. They would only say the body of someone had been found if that person was…I got the call to identify her in the morgue. When I went out later that night, I found him. He wasn’t even hiding; he was flying right out in the open. He was waiting for me. My mask barely hid the rage and anger that was boiling inside of me, but he certainly felt it with every punch. We flew across several blocks, even crashing through a window of an empty building. After we crashed through the building and brought our fight indoors, he made a move towards me in an attempt to do the same to me as he did to MJ.</p><p>I didn’t even hesitate when my hand grabbed that shard of glass and stabbed it in his neck. His hand reached up to the wound, but we knew that if he pulled it out he would bleed out. The glider he got back on took him away, but I didn’t let him out of my sight. We ended up over the river and I landed on the glider with him. My fist pushed the shard even further into his neck. The glider was starting to spin out of control, until we finally crashed into the cold water beneath us. It took a while, but I found my way back to shore. I crawled back home and failed to get any sleep that night. The news reported that I was fighting Hobgoblin the previous night which took us to the river. But no bodies were ever found. I kept the illusion of my death going, finally giving up that cursed suit and everything that came with it.</p><p>Two funerals occurred within days of each other. I wanted to cry, let it all out. But for the first time, I felt numb. It was almost as if I was desensitized to all the dangers that came with being Spider-Man. That was another reason I should have been upset and cry, but it would later just make me feeling angry. I sat on the steps of a small church, trying to not think about all the mistakes I had made with her. I focused on the good, wishing terribly to do it all over again. While I was lost in my head, I didn’t even recognize the person that had come up to me.</p><p>“Having a little crisis of faith?” I looked up at the man who spoke to me. He was wearing a mainly dark red suit with a black dress shirt. A pair of small circular sunglasses sat in front of his face, with long red hair coming out of it. I suppose he was an odd looking guy, but I didn’t care.<br/>“I guess you could say that. Lost some people recently.”</p><p>He nodded. “I hear you friend. It never gets easier, does it?”</p><p>“I suppose not.” I said. </p><p>This guy had let out a deep sigh and looked up at the sky. “Guess that’s why the concept of religion exists in the first place. Gives people comfort to know that one day they will be reunited with those that they lost. The idea of an afterlife does have a certain comfort. Do you believe in such things?”</p><p>“I…I want to.” My head picked up as I looked at him. His head came back down to stare back at me.</p><p>“A lot of people want to. Even know some scientists that want to believe in it. It would be interesting to find out that an afterlife does exist, maybe as some sort of parallel dimension we could one day travel to. Forgive me, just seemed like you could use a break from your thoughts.” He ended up giving me a wave and a smile before walking away. When I looked at my watch, I realized that I had to go back to my life as Peter Parker.</p><p>Despite throwing myself into my work at the Daily Bugle, that man’s words stuck with me. Mainly focused on the idea of parallel dimensions. That must have gotten the scientific part of my mind energized and curious. Was there a way to find out if such a concept exists? I found myself spending all of my free time focused on trying to find answers. I must have ended up reading hundreds of research papers and scientific journals discussing and debating the topic. And from those papers, I ended up trying to work out what kind of material would be needed to turn the theory into reality. While I never wore the suit again, I did use my powers to do some breaking and entering. I didn’t even stop to think how I felt about doing something like that. Looking back, I guess it wasn’t so different from stealing my suit back from Jameson after throwing it away several years ago. </p><p>After months of research and experimenting, I ended up with a belt that could in theory accomplish what I was looking for. Using myself as the first subject, I pressed the button and found myself surrounded with red light.</p><p>At first, it seemed like I had only created a simple teleportation device. I ended up in a different spot but couldn’t immediately tell whether or not I had travelled dimensions. It seemed like the same old New York to me. I made my way through the city until I could get access to a computer. The first thing I looked up was myself, Spider-Man. When nothing came up, I found myself actually getting excited. I looked up the names of my villains and everything came up blank. But then I decided it was time for the ultimate test and typed in my legal name and waited to see what would pop up.</p><p>It took a little while to confirm, but I found Peter Parker. Or this dimension’s version I should say. Still in high school, May and Ben were both alive. I was actually smiling, overjoyed when I came across this realization. I found an abandoned building and worked on examining my device. I had set it up where I could log and save the information for different realities, but unless I wanted to revisit a world I have been to, I couldn’t really control where I would end up next. But I still made myself go to other places, keep testing it.</p><p>I ended up coming across several different worlds during those two weeks. On every one of them, I found some version of myself. Whether it be Peter Parker or Spider-Man. And the worlds themselves were different, from the subtlest differences to huge ones. But my focus was always on whoever was the current web slinger for that Earth. My research showed that all of them had tragedies occur in their life. And I started to recognize that I wasn’t the only one who had to bury people who didn’t deserve to go to their graves just yet. With great power comes great responsibility, that’s a given. But with great responsibility comes great danger. And it is the people around the various Spider-People that end up receiving the full force of that danger.</p><p>I returned to that first Earth I travelled to. The obituaries showed that Benjamin Parker ended up dead, shot and died with his nephew with him. It was then I knew what I had to do. None of these people becoming Spider-Man across all these dimensions knew that they were damning the people they love the most. If preventing needless death meant I had to stop all these Spider-Men from being heroes – by any means necessary – then so be it. </p><p>This first alternate Earth is the one I will use as a base. But I needed someone familiar with the inner workings of the city to keep me hidden. After doing my research of the criminal underworld, I came across a man named Gustav Fiers. I demonstrated to him that I was a resource for him, able to create tech that he could sell in the black market across the world. In exchange, he would hide me and give me whatever I needed for my own mission. Did I like working with an international crime lord? No, but it was a means to an end that I could tolerate. It was actually his idea that I hold off on taking care of the Spider-Man of this Earth. He pointed out that it would attract unwanted attention, and offered to find a way to have others do it for me and take the blame. I developed the technology for them to use and left Gustav in charge of finding the right people. He got to a man named Dr. Connors, who unlike the one on my Earth worked for Oscorp and developed a formula that turned him into a giant lizard. The next guy was this Earth’s Harry Osborn. He dealt with the Spider-Man of his Earth from the shadows while I went to different Earths to get more immediate results.</p><p>It was during my most recent trip I came across the most interesting alternate reality yet. An Earth filled with other heroes. I have come across worlds that included alien life forms and supernatural beings. But all of those previous planets only had one Spider-Person. This one had heroes known as Iron Man, Captain America, the Black Panther, the Hulk and so many others. If I were to come across this planet earlier in my life, I would be shocked and in awe. But I have gotten used to these alternate realities and just knew that this planet would require more research. I found out that this Earth’s Spider-Man had some sort of connection to this rich hero named Tony Stark. This version of me had a suit made out of advanced technology that I would have killed to have. But I have now reached a point where if I had a few years, I could reach that same level. I was about to complete my job on this planet, but just when I was about to, the city seemed to have turned on him.</p><p>Keeping to the shadows, I waited to see what would happen to him. Maybe I didn’t have to do the deed myself this time. But I should know better about what would happen with any version of myself involved. He fought back, exposed the conspiracy around him, and won the city’s love back. But I felt my skin heat up when I saw him do it with a brand new black suit. The moment I saw that; I knew exactly what was going to happen. I would not allow another symbiote to ruin this Peter’s life like how one destroyed mine. When I went back to meet up with Gustav, I had to change our course of plans. He still only had the two, that guy working the Rhino suit was back in jail. And I didn’t want to waste resources getting someone like him out. I wasted enough time on that Earth anyway, been thinking that a base Earth is no longer necessary. And when that Earth’s Spider-Man discovered us in the warehouse, I knew that it was time for us to leave. I needed Gustav to make sure that Harry Connors could be kept in line until I could find some way to give them a bit of an edge. Ended up bribing an Oscorp employee to talk about a formula used to give that Quentin Beck fellow some extra strength and found someone to help steal it.</p><p>Would have worked if it wasn’t for the other Spider-Man. I was surprised, I won’t lie. But I won’t let that deter me from my goal. But plans had to be changed, which is why I had to terminate Harry in front of the two Spider-Men. But now I am back on the hunt, holding a sniper and looking through the scope at the Peter in the black suit swinging through the city. My finger was on the trigger, ready to take out one more Spider-Man.</p><p>But I couldn’t pull it. I studied him swinging through the city a little more. Something in my gut was telling me that this wasn’t him. Some sort of illusion being played on me. One of these Earth’s other heroes must be helping their Peter to try and draw me out into the open. Instead, I snuck away to the building Gustav and I have been using to hide out in. I ended up going back to that Earth he originated from, grabbing some useful tech. Including the tracker that showed me where Gustav was. I took a few pieces of gear with me and went in search of a loose end.</p><p>I ended up crawling up the building, opening a window from the outside. As I got up, I noticed someone turning around the corner. I used one of my weapons, a gun that fires electric shock blasts, and hit him right in the chest. Burn marks on his chest, but I can tell that he would live. I started opening rooms until I found Gustav’s unconscious body in one of them. I stepped forward, putting the gun back in the modified holster. Getting around and behind him, I looked down at the man I was forced to work with.</p><p>“I can’t say it’s been all bad partner.” I softly whispered. “You helped me out more than I would care to admit. But this is where you have to back out of our deal.” My other hand pulled out a modified dagger. The modifications won’t be necessary for him, just a simple stab is enough. The blade penetrated his neck, which forced his eyes open. His hands reached up to me, but I pushed the blade further in and to the side. It wasn’t long until he finally stopped struggling and became completely still.</p><p>I walked out of that room and I heard something come from below. Since I saw two Spider-Men on the same Earth, it would only be logical that they found a way to gather others. The sound coming from the floor below sounded a lot like how I would transport myself to other realities. Grinning, I walked down the hall to the unconscious man against the railing. No matter how many Spider-People have arrived, I plan on taking them all on. I will make sure the curse of being Spider-Man doesn’t take any more lives.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>